Ekstraklasa offers non-exclusive international rights ahead of May 29 return

The Ekstraklasa is offering non-exclusive rights to two fixtures per match week to international broadcasters as the Polish top flight prepares to return on May 29.

The broadcast rights are non-exclusive as the matches will be available internationally on the league’s Ekstraklasa.tv OTT platform. Rights are available to a total of 22 matches across the remainder of the season (two matches per round across the remaining 11 match weeks).

Broadcasters can access high-definition coverage produced by between nine and 13 cameras and with international commentary. Signal pick-up costs at BT Tower are to be borne by the broadcaster.

Ekstraklasa clubs are scheduled to play another eight matches each after clubs received approval to return to team training following various tests were carried out for the Covid-19 virus. Matches will be played behind closed doors and the 2019-20 season is now scheduled to finish on July 19.

Headline clashes amongst the next set of fixtures include Lech Poznan against Legia Warsaw on May 30.

International broadcast rights to the league are sold in-house by Ekstraklasa. The host broadcast of matches is carried out by the league’s Live Park subsidiary.

The IMG agency holds international betting video rights to the league in a deal covering the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

Ekstraklasa.tv ordinarily costs €6.99 ($7.57) per month, with a season pass priced at €49.99. Content outside of live matches, such as highlights, league news and archive content, is provided free of charge. Ekstraklasa.tv launched for international markets in August 2019, with a price of €2.99 for live matches bought on a pay-per-view basis.

The slew of media-rights deals agreed for the Korean K League ahead of its recent restart did not generate large revenues for international distributor Sportradar. But the league hopes to capitalise, in the years to come, on the boost to its profile, as one of the first competitions to restart after Covid-19-related shutdowns.

Polish pay-television operator NC Plus has agreed a four-season extension to its rights deal with Ekstraklasa SA, the governing body of the top division of domestic football, with pan-European broadcaster Eurosport sealing a sublicensing partnership.

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